Articles on electoral reform on blogsite Montopedia
Produced by Tom Monto 2022
my blogs also listed/indexed on these blogs:
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In these blogs I point out
weaknesses of existing FPTP,
need for proportional representation in a democracy,
possible replacement electoral systems, and
my preference for STV (preferential voting in multi-member districts)
===========================
In particular, subjects covered by blogs include:
Weaknesses of FPTP
- 2019 Alberta election
- 2019 federal election
- Alberta NDP under-represented since its founding in 1961
- 2018 Ontario election
City of Edmonton electoral reform
-- ease of grouping wards to make multi-member districts
-- new single-member wards for 2021 will make little difference -- still many votes
will be wasted; minorities, not majorities, will be represented
History of Canadian governments changing electoral systems
Variety of electoral systems that Canadian governments have used
How do we bring about electoral reform?
Multi-member districts
(all forms of PR use multi-member districts/at-large elections. This alone has benefits whether you use party-list PR, STV or SNTV.)
- Multi-member districts are key to having a range of candidates and representative legislatures
Proportional representation (a family of systems including party-list pro-rep and STV)
Single Transferable Voting (STV)
STV - what it is and how to make it happen now!
- how it works
- Sandford Fleming's 1893 book Essays on the rectification of Parliament
Catherine Helen Spence
- history of use of STV in Canadian history
- Edmonton city elections 1923-1927
- Election of Edmonton MLAs 1924-1955
- 1926 Alberta provincial election
- Election of Edmonton and Calgary MLAs in 1948
- Alberta provincial elections 1924-1955
- Manitoba provincial elections 1920-1952
- Winnipeg city elections 1920-1960s and 1970s
- Canadian cities (20 Western Canadian cities used STV in 150 elections)
- Why was provincial STV dropped in Alberta and Manitoba?
Australia and STV Tasmania and STV Catherine Helen Spence 2020 Australian election
Alternative Voting (AV) (also known as Instant-Runoff Voting)
"Attack on Preferential Voting based on shaky grounds"
- history of use of Alternative Voting
- BC elections in 1952, 1953
- New York City has adopted AV as of 2019
- Aspen, Colorado used quasi-AV in 2009 -- "total schmozzle"
- Maine has adopted AV for elections of congressmen, STV affected 2018 outcome
- London, Ontario adopted AV, forced by Ontario Ford government to give up AV
Party-list pro-rep
-- Ranked ballots versus party-list pro-rep
Single Non Transferable Voting
* SNTV pretty proportional and much more so than FPTP
* SNTV allows diversity of candidates and representatives
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[Guide to keywords:
preferential voting = ranked ballots = single transferable votes = Alternative Voting or STV
Preferential Voting = Alternative Voting
Single Transferable Voting (STV) = PR-STV, STV-PR
FPTP = First Past The Post
========================
December 2022
MMDs
Canadian federal elections
Canadian electoral reform
FPTP
MMDs
Canadian federal elections
Scottish Highlands
STV mechanics effective votes vote trasfers
Where do votes go under STV and what portion are used to actually elect someone
BC false majorities
Old Books and information on PR and STV
Hoag and Hallett
John D. Hunt
Catherine Helen Spence
Proportional Representation Review
Proportional Representation Committee of Ontario, Effective Voting the Basis of Good Municipal Government (1898)
Robert Tyson
PR STV writers
STV
Surplus vote transfers: Gregory random whole vote
Edmonton city electoral reform
Edmonton elections
Edmonton city council
Municipal electoral reform
Premier Danielle Smith
Party labels
(see also
https://montopedia.wixsite.com/montopedia/post/party-labels-not-the-answer-to-our-election-woes-despite-what-premier-smith-seems-to-say)
Calgary city elections
Calgary STV
Calgary elections
Municipal electoral reform
MMDs
Ranked voting
STV
U.S. politics
U.S. elections
IRV
Electoral college
https://montopedia.wixsite.com/montopedia/post/party-labels-not-the-answer-to-our-election-woes-despite-what-premier-smith-seems-to-say
Edmonton city electoral reform
Edmonton elections
Edmonton city council
Municipal electoral reform
Premier Danielle Smith
Party labels
PR in Europe
Denmark
Danish elections
Municipal electoral reform
U.S. politics
BC PEI
Electoral reform referendums
Canadian electoral reform
Canadian elections
Canadian electoral reform
Canadian elections
Canadian federal elections
STV PR ranked voting
Canadian electoral reform
Canadian elections
Canadian federal elections
Trudeau
MMDs
STV PR ranked voting
Canadian electoral reform
Canadian elections
Canadian federal elections
Canadian history
MMDs
U.S. politics
U.S. elections
IRV
Electoral college
U.S. history
https://montopedia.wixsite.com/montopedia/post/upcoming-portland-vote-evokes-debate-on-stv
Portland Oregon
Municipal electoral reform
U.S. politics
2021 Canadian election
Federal election
Conservatives
False majorities
One-party sweeps
2021 Canadian election
Federal election
Conservatives
False majorities
One-party sweeps
New Zealand
MMP
STV
MMDs
districting
Instant-runoff voting
U.S. electoral reform
https://montopedia.wixsite.com/montopedia/post/when-referendums-saw-majority-in-favour-of-change-to-pr-and-from-pr
referendum
Canadian electoral reform
municipal electoral reform
Ottawa
Saskatoon
Regina
FPTP
false majorities
one-party sweeps
opposition shut-out
minority rule
and more
Sept 2022
Plurality block voting
MMDs
FPTP
Calgary 1921
Free verse!?!:
STV (and any form of PR) would give
majority of seats to majority of voters (whether in one party or in several)
and
give minority of the seats to each substantial minority.
allowing neighbourhod representation if it has numbers enough
and
general balance and fairness -
oh and most votes would be used to elect someone -
so there would be a large proportion of Effective Votes!
U.S. electoral reform
https://montopedia.wixsite.com/montopedia/post/on-pro-rep-comparing-cumulative-voting-stv-and-mmp
Cumulative voting
MMP
STV
FPTP
FPTP Ottawa Centre 2021 federal election
STV Edmonton Alberta provincial election 1944
the 20 percent not used under STV to elect someone includes …
Here's an article on Illinois use of Cumulative Voting from 1870 to 1980. But I am not sure the writer - Steven Hill - understands CV (for reasons I then give)
… He says
"[STV] has all the benefits of cumulative voting but it also has other desirable features that prevent spoiler candidates, split votes and wasted votes that can sometimes happen with cumulative voting...."
Cumulative Voting was used to elect city boards in Toronto starting in 1903
PR defined in such as way as to include both STV and MMP and party-list PR
Denmark PR MMP MMD
Two question PR referendum would cover all the bases and let the people choose
Referendum based on two questions allowing local flexibility, consistent voting method
FPTP does not produce majority representation
July 2022
Two-member district used in Northern Territory election of Australian Senators
Australia Senate MMD multi-member district
Canadian elections 1867-1968
BC Alberta, Saskatchewan Manitoba Ontario Quebec NS NB PEI Newfoundland NWT Yukon
Halifax
MMD multi-member district
(This essay is presented in a three-blog series:
https://montopedia.wixsite.com/montopedia/post/canada-federally-and-in-the-provinces-and-territories-used-multi-member-districts-part-3
Most of Canada's MPs have been elected as the single member for their district, through First past the post. But until 1968 two or more MPs in every election were elected in multi-member riding. At one time 22 MPs were elected in multi-member ridings. These were in Halifax, Ottawa, Cape Breton, Hamilton, St. John, Victoria, Pictou and three ridings in PEI - Queen's, King's and Prince. They were elected through Block Voting.
At another time also the West Toronto riding also was an MMD.
MM districts used in the provincial or federal level from 1867 (or even pre-Confederation) right through to 1996, in some place or other in Canada.
Every province, plus two Territories - NWT and Yukon Territory - used MMDs at one point in time or another
MM districts used in Alberta 1909-1955 in some place or other in every election
MMDs
MMDS often used Block Voting, but other voting systems were tried as well:
The use of the contingent vote, ranked or preferential voting, the Ware formula, Bucklin vote, STV or Alternative Voting (IRV) began to emerge in the late 19th Century. (Challenges to the Voting System in Canada, p. 14-15
Plus Gove system
(See https://www.cs.jhu.edu/~jason/papers/eisner.istv91.pdf (un-dated [1990?]) for discussion of its potential use in South Africa.) under name “Indirect single transferable voting”
Phillips presents highlights of the 1910 Report of the Royal Commission Appointed to Enquire into Electoral Systems (U.K. government),
Canada provincial elections
(Quebec had MM districts before 1867; all other provinces did also before or after 1867 or in both periods:
Ontario NB NFLD NL NS PEI MN SK AB BC (NWT and Yukon as well)
Federal elections
Halifax 1758
Block Voting STV Limited Voting IRV/AV (single-winner majoritarian) Post election system (separate single-winner elections in MMD)
(note on Limited Voting:
I found this:
Phillips, Challenges to the Voting System, 1867-1974
available online:
says this on Limited Voting (p. 17)
"The system was applied in England to constituencies returning more than two members from 1867 to 1885.
[Footnote states "the LV was applied to 13 constituencies each returning three or four members and included Glasgow, Birmingham and the City of London... Spain and Portugal used the system in the early part of this century [20th Century?]"
Phillips: LV was debated in Canada pre-Conf
"It had been tabled in the debates on the Reform Bill to 1831 and 1832. Only a few years later the Gosford Commission investigating grievances affecting His Majesty's subjects, of Lower Canada considered a request that the limited vote be introduced.
One of the Commissioners stated in part:
'... [under FPTP] there will be no chance for the minority being permitted under the established and usual law of voting, to elect a representative, he is of the opinion that the most practical remedy would be to limit voter to one vote no mater how many representatives should have to be elected and that it would be advantageous to give each district which according to the census had pop. of 15,000 and less than 20,000 3 reps., and to those which had 20,000 and less than 35,000 four...'
...
It was deemed 'unwise for the Imperial Parliament to pursue a change in the Constitution.. especially with the certainty that the people could give it no welcome.'
However the Commissioners added that if the experiences of LV in other countries helped to get LV to find more favour in Canada, that position should be reviewed."
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Nelson New Zealand
City reform city STV
1911 federal election
Canadian election
1911 election
Australia 2022 election
Instant-runoff voting Alternative Voting
Australia STV Alberta STV Manitoba STV New Zealand MMP
Mixed-Member Proportional
Edmonton STV Effective Votes
Canadian elections 1867-2021
SNTV STV Vanuatu SNTV
Threshold effective threshold
New Zealand MMP
Denmark MMP (party-list PR/party-list PR)
North Zealand
Block Voting
Cumulative Voting
https://montopedia.wixsite.com/montopedia/post/proportionality-of-stv-and-party-list-pr-mmp-compared
STV MMP
Threshold DM
2019 NSW (Australia) election
2020 Scotland Assembly election 2020 Additional Member System
Extra time extra counting
STV
Ontario elections
2018 Ontario election result was dis-proportional in many ways
parties represented dis-proportionally
MPPs elected with only a minority of the vote in their districts.
Here's my blog on the subject:
2022 Ontario election
2022 Ontario election
Ontario election 2022
gross mis-representation
May-June 2022
Demonstration STV election
Catherine Helen Spence
https://montopedia.wixsite.com/montopedia/post/catherine-helen-spence-a-plea-for-pure-democracy-1861
Mr. Hare’s STV applied to Australia [sic]
A Plea for Pure Democracy (1861)
Municipal reform
Portland, Oregoncity elections
PM Trudeau
Federal elections
Alberta STV
Alberta elections
Manitoba elections
Harold Janzen
1920 1924
1955 1959
Catherine Helen Spence A Week in the future Hogarth’s Will
Berenstein Bears
Total Control
Rake
SNTV 2021 Canadian election
Edmonton
2020 Vanuatu
PR disadvantages of FPTP and Block Voting need for change
Piesse, "The Theory of the Quota in PR", Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania, 1912
Mexico parallel voting
Hungary parallel voting PR
scorpora (a semi-proportional "negative vote transfer" method).
Five main types of PR systems are used for election of members of national legislative assemblies in the world today
Party-list PR - based on overall party vote tallies
Mixed Member Proportional - district members, dis-proportionality is addressed by members elected due to party vote tallies.
Single Transferable Voting (STV) - district members that are party-balanced through single voting in multi-member districts
Parallel Voting - district members alongside members elected due to party vote tallies and perhaps alongside members elected in other ways as well.
Limited Voting - multi-member districts; voters cast more than one vote but fewer than seats being filled.
"General ticket" method entails election of a whole party slate, instead of candidate by candidate basis.
A couple Parallel Voting systems elect through the "general ticket" method.
One LV system elects by "general ticket" method.
Vancouver
Vancouver city election 2018
Block Voting
City elections
Europe PR 2022 European
Basic features of good PR
Number of members as cube root of population
2022 Wales
Alberta
Jordan SNTV STV
Jordan's 2020 election was held under an even more fair system, one much fairer than Canada's
STV PR Malta Edmonton FPTP
Winnipeg
Belgium
Ireland
Timeline
SNTV Vanuatu Pacifica
SNTV is currently used in a few countries - Puerto Rico, Libya and others.
Puerto Rico elects some of its members using SNTV.
Jordan used SNTV from 1993 to 2017 or so. (more on this below)
Vanuatu
Task Force on Canadian Unity Canadian elections 1979
April 2022
https://montopedia.wixsite.com/montopedia/post/rep-by-pop-not-fair-without-pro-rep originally published April 21, 2022
Double insult created by combination of rep by pop and FPTP
2021 Canadian election
1984 federal election one-party sweeps Alberta PEI
List of “merits” of proper PR
======================================
Female emancipation suffrage equal voting rights
Catherine Helen Spence
Australia
Women’s firsts in Australia and Canada
Stage prop
“Hare-Spence”
Lethbridge IRV STV
First past the post
1984 federal election
2022 federal election
PEI as multi-member district
MM district
2021 federal election
https://montopedia.wixsite.com/montopedia/post/pei-as-multi-member-riding
https://montopedia.wixsite.com/montopedia/post/multi-member-districts-best-way-to-go-even-in-a-mmp-system
Multi-member districts best way to go even in a MMP system
Dates when nine of ten provinces stopped using MM districts. (Quebec never did use them)
Kilgour - Conservative, Liberal, Independent - a man elected under FPTP
Edmonton Strathcona
Liberal MP Conservative MP Independent
Canada's First Past The Post elections not creating stability -- PR would
Ireland Malta Sweden Switzerland Italy
Swiss voting system
Canadian federal elections 1990-2022
South Africa - how does its PR work?
South Africa
MMP with province-wide MM districts and nation-wide top-up
Pilon on PR - question of democracy
Excerpt from
Dennis Pilon: B.C.’s voting system referendum—the politics of choosing
Georgia Straight, November 23rd, 2018
https://montopedia.wixsite.com/montopedia/post/pilon-on-pr-question-of-democracy
Ontario Farmers government tried for PR, 1919-1923
UFO Farmers post-WWI Ontario 1919 election 1923 Ontario election
Yukon electoral reform -- 2022
Territories
Catherine Helen Spence Part 4. Chapter V to VIII.
Excerpt from Sanford Fleming’s 1893 book
Also https://montopedia.wixsite.com/montopedia/post/fleming-essays-on-rectification-of-parliament-part-3-catherine-helen-spence
Electoral reform in established democracies since 1980
Russia
Italy
New Zealand
There have only been six major reforms between 1980 and 2010 in established democracies (New Zealand, Japan, France (twice) and Italy (twice)). In addition, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have adopted new electoral systems for their Parliaments
Victoria, Australia changed to STV in 2003 (see other blog for info on this)
March 2022
https://montopedia.wixsite.com/montopedia/post/how-democratic-were-alberta-s-stv-elections-the-stats
1926 Edmonton 1926
1926 Calgary 1926
Vote transfers
Effective Voting
Alberta STV
FVC Rural-urban PR
STV MMP Additional Member Proportional
Rep. by pop.
Canadian history
Lord Durham
Earl Grey
Lord Elgin
https://montopedia.wixsite.com/montopedia/post/stv-reflections-and-observations-in-its-defence
STV
Is STV slow, complicated…
Richard Cartwright
Bottom’s up STV vote transfers
Simple STV
Edward Blake
1874 Aurora speech
19th Century
Cumulative Voting Limited Voting STV
Canadian history
Vote transfers
STV
https://montopedia.wixsite.com/montopedia/post/cumulative-voting-in-toronto-1903
Cumulative voting
Canadian history Toronto
Indigenous governance
Native consensus
MMP STV
Examination of Five systems
STV SNTV
MMP MMP/STV MMP/SNTV
Canadian reform
SNTV Vanuatu Canada reform
STV
FPTP
February 2022
Majority rule
John D. Hunt
Elijah Harper Justin Trudeau
Municipal elections
IRV AV
MM districts multi-member districts
Canada Calgary Winnipeg STV
Malta
Federal elections in: Ontario Quebec Manitoba Alberta Saskatchewan BC PEI NB NS NFLD
Toronto 2014 as few as 18 percent enough to elect under FPTP
Edmonton Medicine Hat
1886
Halifax 1758 Block Voting MM district
==========================
2019 Canadian election
Climenhaga Alberta reform
Majority rule
https://montopedia.wixsite.com/montopedia/post/first-past-the-post-means-arbitrary-districts
Halifax 1758 (repeat of above?)
https://montopedia.wixsite.com/montopedia/post/sales-ad-for-pr
PR advertizement
Fairvote USA
U.S. reform
PEI MM districts
2019 Canadian election FPTP
Yellowhead Battle River
GTA 52 ridings 2019 2021
Toronto Canada election
FPTP
https://montopedia.wixsite.com/montopedia/post/nsw-2019-the-largest-stv-election-i-know-of
New South Wales Australia STV 2019
BC STV referendum Canadian history
Toronto
Victoria
Anniversaries
Canadian history Edmonton Calgary 1921
JANUARY 2022
https://montopedia.wixsite.com/montopedia/post/pr-the-wide-range-of-systems-suited-to-canada
STV SNTV MMP Rural-urban PR
(see five systems above)
FPTP Canada
Kingston, ON IRV (I hope not the Bucklin system!)
Colin Walmsley Ray Martin